Sam Stosur crashes out of US Open

Sam Stosur has been stunned by 296th-ranked American qualifier Victoria Duval in the biggest upset of the US Open's first round, the 2011 champion eliminated 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 by a 17-year-old playing in just her second grand slam match.

Duval's first slam match was against another former titleholder, Kim Clijsters, a year ago, and the result a straight sets initiation to big-time tennis. This one was extraordinarily different, the fearless Haitian-born Duval ensuring the 11th seed had her earliest Flushing Meadows exit since 2008.

While this is something, typically, that happens under the blinding spotlight in Australia, this was not Melbourne Park, but Flushing Meadows.

It was not the Queenslander's home grand slam, where she has struggled so routinely, but the place where she enjoyed her greatest moment against the great Serena Williams two years ago.

Still, the result, effectively, was the same: shock and disappointment, fuelled by an excess of unforced errors, including 10 double faults. Wow.

Duval closed out the match in two hours, 39 minutes, with a 15th forehand winner. She had served for all three sets, and closed out the last two, to cause a monumental boilover.

The earliest stages provided no hint of what was to come, as Stosur bustled through the first three games. But Duval was not overawed, cracking winners off both sides and playing well above her ranking and experience levels.

Early exit ... Samantha Stosur walks off the court after losing her first round match to Victoria Duval. Photo: Reuters

By the time she had forced a deciding set, the night session crowd was filing into Arthur Ashe stadium, and Stosur was playing for her survival in her first match since parting ways with long-time coach David Taylor.

Federation Cup captain Alicia Molik is helping in the meantime, but it is Stosur who must execute, of course, and she could not. As a quarter-finalist last year, her ranking will take a substantial hit.

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So will her confidence, just a few weeks after winning her first singles title in two years. This one will hurt. Ouch.